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Badab Sector
The Badab Sector is a region of space located within the Maelstrom Zone, along the Eastern Fringe of the Segmentum Ultima. This sector of space was the site of one of the most insidious and dangerous internecine conflicts to wrack the Imperium of Man in recent history, known as the Badab War (ca. 901-913.M41). With the difficulty of travelling through the region, this area of space became a haven to xenos, pirates, Heretics and Renegades. Within the Maelstrom is a region of lawless wilderness containing an estimated 20+ Ork empires, numerous Hrud infestations, and countless human pirate strongholds. It is also now home to the infamous Huron Blackheart and his piratical Renegade Space Marine warband known as the Red Corsairs as well as a large contingent of Word Bearers Chaos Space Marines and their Chaos Cultists allies who fled there in the 31st Millennium in the wake of the Battle of Calth during the Horus Heresy. This region of space was first explored during the Great Crusade by the Emperor of Mankind and his vast military forces. But it was not until the 38th and 39th Millennia that the Imperium slowly established several important Imperial outposts within the Maelstrom Zone. These outposts rose to prominence as flickering beacons of influence and strength within the region. The three vital star systems that formed the links in a distant chain that allowed the resources of the Maelstrom Zone to flow into the coffers of the more established sectors beyond were the star systems of Cygnax, Sagan and Badab. History The Badab Sector is located in the Maelstrom Zone, on the Eastern Fringe of the Ultima Segmentum, and represents a portion of the considerable territories conquered by the Imperium during the 38th and 39th Millenniums. A few of the major events in the Imperium of Man’s history have also been included to establish a wider context for a consideration of events in the Badab Sector: *'The Great Crusade (Late 30th - Early 31st Millennium)' - The Emperor of Mankind's Great Crusade seeks to reunite all of the human-settled colony worlds in the galaxy under the rule of the newborn Imperium of Man. During the Great Crusade, the armies of the Emperor of Mankind attempted to penetrate the Maelstrom and cleanse it of the evils that lurked within. The wealth of the Maelstrom has drawn Mankind to the Zone time and again despite its manifold hazards and difficulties, and indeed there is ready evidence of humanity's presence in the region as far back as the Dark Age of Technology. The Maelstrom Zone has also drawn humanity's enemies as well in their countless number and diverse loathsome forms. Hundreds of warships and thousands of troops were lost in the early campaigns during the Great Crusade era, and with the rest of the galaxy to reconquer, the Emperor declared the region Purgatus. *'The Horus Heresy (Early 31st Millennium)' - The Warmaster Horus, Primarch of the Sons of Horus Space Marine Legion, is corrupted by Chaos and his own ambition and rebels against his father, the Emperor. He successfully recruits half of the Space Marine Legions, large parts of the Adeptus Mechanicus and the Imperial Army into the service of Chaos and unleashes a deadly 7-year-long galactic civil war that kills hundreds of billions. Horus is slain by the Emperor at the conclusion of the Battle of Terra. Mortally wounded himself in the confrontation, the Emperor is interred within the Golden Throne. The present Age of the Imperium begins. In the years following the Horus Heresy, Primarch Roboute Guilliman of the Ultramarines Space Marine Legion decided that the inhabitants of the Maelstrom were too great a threat to the stability of the fledgling Imperium to ignore, and ordered the surrounding regions reinforced in an effort to contain any attacks that may originate from within. *'Colonisation of Badab (38th and 39th Millennium)' - Slowly, during the 38th and 39th millennia, several important Imperial outposts within the Maelstrom Zone rose to prominence as flickering beacons of influence and strength within the region. This handful of vital worlds formed the links in a distant chain that allowed the resources of the Maelstrom Zone to flow from its hazardous depths into the coffers of more established sectors beyond the stellar arm. The Badab Sector was one of the three most important links in this chain, which also included Cygnax and Sagan, each an isolated Imperial civilisation in this anarchic sea. This path of commerce came increasingly under threat as the situation in the Maelstrom became ever more volatile. *'Death of Cygnax (577.M41)' - With the fall of Cygnax, one of the lynchpin worlds within this volatile region, Imperial control of the northern Maelstrom Zone swiftly crumbled. Without this key world, taken with other losses over the previous few centuries, vital military supply chains stretching as far as Bakka and Terra itself were threatened, forcing the Adeptus Terra to act. *'The Warders of the Maelstrom (587.M41)' - Forced to act, the High Lords of Terra pronounced an Edict Imperialis in response to these dire predations, ordering several Space Marine Chapters to permanently base themselves in the Maelstrom Zone in order to protect the Imperium's interests and pacify the region. In recognition of their past glorious service to the Imperium, the Astral Claws Chapter was given the high honour of the senior role in commanding the newly formed Maelstrom Warders. This force was to include the fleet-based Lamenters and Charnel Guard Chapters to patrol the outer regions, and also incorporated the Mantis Warriors who were based in the nearby Endymion Cluster. The wealth of the Maelstrom Zone once again flows into the coffers of the Imperium. *'The Battle of Hellsiris (715.M41)' - After a series of Ork raids originating within the Maelstrom struck deep into the Badab Sector, the Chapter Master of the Astral Claws, Rovik Blake, went against his own doctrine, and pursued the Orks back into the Maelstrom itself at the head of a large strike force. Although the Astral Claws slayed thousands of greenskins and destroyed much of the Ork's base, their Chapter's battle barge was badly damaged and their Chapter Master slain, forcing the Astral Claws to retreat. Lufgt Huron, Captain of the Astral Claws' 3rd Company was appointed Chapter Master by the popular acclaim of his peers in 715.M41. *'The Tyrant of Badab (718.M41)' - After a failed coup on the Hive World of Badab Primaris led to an abortive civil war, the Astral Claws stepped in and brutally crushed the conflict. In the aftermath, the elements behind the coup were brought forth to Lufgt Huron for judgement. Mindful of the lesson of Cygnax, the Chapter Master personally took matters into his own hands, swiftly reimposing order once more. This time he employed the Astral Claws much more brutally as they executed much of the planet's ruling class as well as purging those they perceived as morally recidivist. Taking upon himself the mantle of planetary ruler, Lufgt Huron stylised himself the 'Tyrant of Badab', claiming the inhabited worlds in proximity to the hospitable region of the void around the Badab System as his Chapter's fiefdom. In his subsequent pronouncement, he echoed the example and precedents of the sovereign realm of Ultramar and the Warder's charter. The nearby system was soon purged wholesale of the ruling elites and in the decades afterward, a number of Astral Claws 'watch bastions' were established. The Tyrant's chosen servants and political allies were placed in positions of power, turning the Badab Sector into a pocket empire, commanded by the Astral Claws. *'The Badab Schism (748.M41-900.M41)' - Huron sent a request to the Adeptus Administratum that the Maelstrom Zone be allowed to stop providing its tithe of resources to the Imperium so that he could refocus those resources on the Maelstrom Warders' efforts to cleanse the Maelstrom of Renegades and Heretics. This request was denied and met instead with increased quota demands. Huron then unilaterally withheld Badab Primaris' planetary tithe to the Imperium and blocked the passage of Imperial trade through his realms. This was intended to protest the Imperium's failure to provide him and his Astartes allies with sufficient resources to police the Maelstrom. Refusing to carry out the Astral Claws' primary role as the defenders of the Imperial worlds within the Maelstrom Zone, the Tyrant diverted the industrial resources and manpower of the Badab Sector that he was no longer providing to the Imperium to directly supplement the Badab Sector's defences as well as to augment the Maelstrom Zone's fleet detachment and to better fortify the key worlds of the sector under his control. The Tyrant ordered the demolition of the ancient citadel of the ruling Dominars of Badab Primaris and instead erected the legendary "Palace of Thorns" to his own specifications and design. The political conflict between the Administratum's right to claim the Imperial tithe and the ancient right of Adeptus Astartes Chapter Masters to defend the Imperium by any means necessary came to be known as the Badab Schism and would last for more than a century and a half. Ultimately, the schism would culminate in the internecine conflict known as the Badab War, a civil war fought between the Chapters of the Maelstrom Warders who sought to secede from the Imperium and those Loyalist Chapters that moved to maintain Imperial unity. *'Destruction of Imperial Tithe Fleet VX542-11 (901.M41)' - With preliminary judgements into the Badal Schism in the Segmentum Courts Temporal weighing in the Administratum's favour, an Imperial investigation fleet including representatives of the Adeptus Mechanicus Bioligis Inviglia and the Administratum Lords of the Karthago Sector, is to Badab to demand the delivery of the Badab tithe and Chapter's gene-seed requirements. The investigation fleet is fired on and destroyed as it attempts to force its way through the Badab System's 'Ring of Steel' and press its demands. Claim and counter-claim ensues in the aftermath as to how this tragic destruction had occurred. Karthan Sector Governor Tanit Koenig calls for the arrest and trial of Huron for treachery against the Imperium. *'The Karthan Retaliation (902.M41-903.M41)' - The Karthan Imperial Commanders take it on themselves to send two further punitive expeditions into the Maelstrom Zone under the auspices of Imperial Authority, both fleets are lost in unknown circumstances with intervention by the Astral Claws and their allies gravely suspected. *'The Maelstrom Succession (903.M41)' - To answer the continuing threats to the control of his domain, Lufgt Huron issued the infamous 'Articles of Just Secession', which were also signed and ratified by the masters of the Lamenters and Mantis Warriors Chapters. These documents were designed to formally sever the Maelstrom Zone's direct tithes to its neighbouring sectors. As the situation devolved further the Karthans threatened all out war, but lacked the means to do so alone. Instead the petitioned aid to mount an attack from the Departmento Munitorum and the Segmentum Naval sub-command at Ryza, but were flatly refused and informed that the matter was an 'internal dispute.' Met with denials, the Karthago Sector itself drafted increasingly large numbers of troops into its planetary defence regiments. To further their goals, the Karthan Satrap sent several direct and open appeals to several Space Marine Chapters with whom they had past dealings with. The Satrap had quickly realised that only other Space Marines could truly hope to contest other Space Marines in open battle. The Fire Hawks Chapter was the first to respond to their cause. *'The Badab War Begins (904.M41)' - A vessel belonging to the Fire Hawks Space Marine Chapter is captured by the Mantis Warriors, which worsens the conflict. Matters swiftly escalate and the Fire Hawks, aided by the Karthan fleet then launch a series of of probing attacks on the Feudal World of Iblis, and while they are so occupied, the Administratum-controlled system of Safan and its orbital fleet anchorage is invaded and captured by the Astral Claws and Lamenters amid a great slaughter. *'The Eye of the High Lords (905.M41)' - With five different Space Marine Chapters embroiled in open warfare with varios naval detachments, local defence armies and the sectarian forces of various Adeptus now involved in the greatest conflict since the Fourth Quadrant Rebellion, the Imperium's high authorities finally act, despatching a triumvirate of Imperial Legates under the Seal of the High Lords to pronounce judgment over the ongoing strife in the Maelstrom Zone under orders to leave no stone unturned. *'Judgment of the High Lords (905.M41)' - The resolution of the Badab Secession crisis is pronounced by the Terran Legates to be a matter of the Imperium's security rather than a civil conflict between local factions. They issue a demand for the unconditional ceasefire of all parties and the surrender of the Secessionists which is immediately rejected by Huron. As a result, orders are issued by the Terran Legates for the arrest pending trial of the Chapter Masters of the Secessionist Chapters and the seizure pending judgement of their worlds, goods and chattels. *'Condemnation of the Astral Claws (908.M41)' - In the face of wanton heresy and deceit, and invoking full emergency authority, the prosecuting Inquisitor Legate Jarndyce Frain condemns the Astral Claws as Excommunicate Traitoris under sentence of death, and also places their allies as under official suspicion of heresy and treasonous contravention of Imperial High Law, although no immediate evidence exists that they too have strayed so far from the path. This fact fundamentally alters the nature of the conflict itself, and a pall of secrecy descends over the true conduct of the war. *'The Tyrant Stands Alone (911.M41)' - The Tyrant announces in a recorded message that is relayed throughout the warzone that the Astral Claws and their subjects within the Badab Sector are no longer part of the Imperium of Man. Within Huron's remaining domains, all signs and symbols of Imperial authority, culture and creed are cast down in a firestorm of iconoclasm, and the mass extinction on Badab Primaris of clerics and functionaries are said to last for weeks without pause. *'The Siege of Badab (913.M41)' - With the remaining Astral Claws forced back at last to the hugely fortified Badab system and their allied Chapters surrendered or battered into submission, the war enters its final phase. A concerted attack by the Loyalist fleet, elements of the Adeptus Mechanicus, the Red Scorpions, Star Phantoms, Carcharodons, Exorcists and Sons of Medusa breaks through the Badab system's formidable 'Ring of Steel,' assaulting its star forts and outer bastions in order to silence the legendary 'Big Guns' of the Badab system. Once the system is invested, a blockade on the outer system is mounted to prevent any attempt at escape, and further assault units including battle Titans of the Legio Crucius and the forces of the Ordo Hereticus are brought up in preparation for the attack on Badab Primaris itself. *'Final Assault (913.M41)' - With Badab surrounded and under heavy bombardment from orbit, the final assault begins. Lufgt Huron eventually fell during the final assault for the Palace of Thorns, Huron's seat of power on the world of Badab Primaris, although whether he survived or was truly slain remained shrouded in mystery, as his body was borne away by his closest followers. Only a contingent of about two to three hundred of the renegade Astral Claws, now devotees of Chaos Undivided, managed to fight their way through the Exorcists Chapter's blockade and escaped into deep space, taking refuge in the hellish realm known as the Maelstrom, joining the horde of aliens, renegades and heretics that made the Maelstrom their lair. *'The Death of Badab Primaris (913.M41)' - Assigned by Lord High Commander Carab Culln the task of attacking the planet's infrastructure and preventing an organised defence from taking root, the Carcharodons took matters into their own hands to bring about the end of the Tyrant's reign and devised their own plan for doing so. They despatched strike teams deep into the sub-surface caverns deep beneath Badab Primaris' hive cities. There the savage Astartes sabotaged the extensive subterranean network of ancient atomic and geo-thermal reactors which powered the hives and fed Badab Primaris' hungry planetary defence batteries with energy. Across Badab Primaris the power failed or suddenly spiked, which added to the chaos of the final assault, while the hives began to quake and the once soaring towers of Badab toppled like felled trees. As the reactors began to detonate, they ripped apart Badab's continental landmasses, triggering massive earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, hurling millions of tonnes of radioactive fallout and debris into the atmosphere. In the anarchy and ruin that followed the fall of the hive cities, the majority of the planet's population are exterminated within a few standard days. *'The Star Phantoms' Prize (913.M41)' - In recognition for their efforts, the badly mauled Star Phantoms Chapter were given the reward of dominion over the once proud Badab Sector along with the task of policing its survivors. This reward was somewhat of a hollow one, as the Star Phantoms Chapter had been reduced to under a third of its former strength by the fighting, and its new domains were little more than a kingdom of ashes. The Star Phantoms bring down their crippled battle barge Memento Mori on the surface of the ice moon of Jahga in the Archaea system to serve as the core of their new Fortress-Monastery and slowly began to rebuild. Notable Systems and Worlds *'Archaea System' ** Archaea IV - Agri-World *'Badab System' **'Badab I (Pyrantius)' - Molten World **'Badab II (Badab Primaris)' - Dead World/Former Hive World - Home to the Fortress-Monastery of the Renegade Astral Claws (Destroyed ca. 913.M41) **'Badab III: Rigeal' -Dead World - High Anchorage/Imperial Navy Base **'Badab IV: Badab Secundus' - Dead World that served as a Tithe Store **'Badab V (Laimius)' - Gas Giant **'Badab VI (Sigma)' - Fortress Station/Astropathic Relay *'Decaballus System' **'Decaballus V' - Frontier World *'Eschunna Systen' **'Eschunna XII' - Proto-Hive World *'Hattusa System' **'Hattusa II' - Waste World *'Isin System' **'Isin IV' - Civilised World *'Pireaus System' **'Piraeus II' - Settled moon **'Piraeus V' - Industrial Hive World **'Piraeus VII' - Settled moon Sources *''Imperial Armour Volume Nine - The Badab War - Part One'', pp. 7, 10, 14-16, 35 *''Imperial Armour Volume Ten - The Badab War - Part Two'', pp. 15, 31, 34-37, 39-42, 44-49, 53 *''Warhammer 40,000 Compendium'', "The Badab War", pp. 33-35 es:Sector Badab Category:B Category:Badab War Category:Imperial History Category:Imperium Category:Galaxy Category:Maelstrom